Written by

Brian Eason

@brianeason

Homeowners and business owners along Long Island Beach spent Saturday picking through what superstorm Sandy left behind, many of them for the first time.

Some escaped relatively unscathed — a flooded basement or garage. Others lost the first floors of their home to water damage, or even the home itself.

Still, many here cling to the same mantra: It could have been worse.

'Enter if you dare'

Propped up against the door is a novelty fence gate with a small sign: “Enter if you dare.”

The warning took on new meaning on Saturday. Sandy Gingras and a half-dozen others wore breathing masks to keep from choking on mold while cleaning out her Beach Haven How to Live store. Clutching their masks, they walked in and out, piling what used to be Gingras’ merchandise onto the sidewalk outside.

By mid-afternoon, what remained of their wares — artwork and other home decor — stretched a quarter-block in either direction, with more still to throw away even after a second day of hauling debris.

“We’re throwing everything away,” Gringas said. “It’s all moldy. You can salvage things for yourself, but you can’t sell them.”

Her store in Surf City still is open, unharmed. But she fights back tears when discussing what she’s lost.

“The other day I didn’t cry,” she told her friend, Eileen Hessel, who came to offer help. “It was the first day I didn’t cry.”

Hessel has less success fighting back her own tears. Her home was ravaged by Sandy, but what makes her emotional is the business she worked for five years to get off the ground. She sells a line of skin products, primarily to stores like this one, but she lost a huge shipment she was storing at a friend’s garage.

And yet she came to offer aid, not ask for it. “I’m a fighter,” Hessel said. “I’m a Jersey girl.”

Sandstorm

“We have an Army man!” exclaimed 16-year-old Alexandra Ettman, pulling a toy soldier from a chest-high mound of sand and rubble.

Here on Merivale Avenue, a row of beachfront properties in Beach Haven, sand is piled high at nearly every home, much of it with surprises waiting like Alexandra’s latest find.

(Page 2 of 2)

The houses themselves have seen better days. But their homeowners insist things could be worse.

Joe Spadola’s vacation home was knocked from its foundation, and passers-by can see into bedrooms through huge gashes in the exterior walls. His fridge landed in a tree, though no one can quite figure out how.

He likely will have to replace the house entirely — if not sell the property and cut his losses.

“It all depends on what we can afford,” Spadola said. “Basically, what they (the insurance companies) pay.”

Spadola lives in Rudolph, but shares the home with his sister, who lives in Manhattan.

It’s not just a house — he and his sister have memories there dating back to when they were children.

Across the street, the Ettmans are one of the few families in the area who live there year-round. Alexandra’s father, Steve Ettman, said he lost his record and CD collection and all of the family’s winter clothes, which he kept in storage. Saturday’s task was to clean out what they lost, and dig through the rubble in their front yard.

'It's awful for her'

They sat eating nachos from Taco Bell in a mostly empty living room on Saturday, already having moved most of their furniture to the curb.

Diane Taylor and her husband, Glen, spent this week cleaning out the first floor of their small vacation home. They tore out the carpet and hauled mud-soaked furniture, ruined by the 3 feet of water that collected there following the storm.

After discussing her own problems, she points out the window to indicate her neighbors, some of whom are elderly and live there year-round.